Ocean’s 8 is No. 1 at the box office
The necklace at the centre of the heist in “Ocean’s 8” is worth over $100 million. The movie itself arrived to a significantly lower but still gleaming $41.5 million at the domestic box office this weekend.
The Warner Bros. film, a spinoff of the “Ocean’s” trilogy, stars Sandra Bullock as the thieving Debbie Ocean (the sister of George Clooney’s Danny Ocean) alongside Cate Blanchett, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway and a cavalcade of other stars. While the film easily took first place at the box office, its opening is not an unmitigated success: The movie suffered through substantial reshooting and cost at least $150 million to make and market worldwide. It also fell behind the opening weekends of each of “Ocean’s Eleven” through “Thirteen,” when adjusted for inflation.
The movie has not faced the misogynistic backlash that other female-centric reboots like “Ghostbusters” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” attracted from online trolls, possibly because the franchise has few intense fans and little nostalgic value. But the movie hasn’t been met by the same enthusiasm, either: It’s received muted reviews and an unflashy B+ CinemaScore from audiences.
“Hereditary,” the intensely scrutinized boutique horror film from A24, came in fourth place with $13 million, according to comScore, which compiles box office data. Roughly in line with projections, it is the acclaimed studio’s biggest opening ever, easily surpassing the returns of “Lady Bird,” “Moonlight” and “The Witch.” But while the graphic and disturbing film earned rave reviews from critics, early audiences responded differently, giving it a D+ CinemaScore. That may hurt word of mouth and prevent the film from having a long tail.
“Hotel Artemis,” a lowbudget action film from Global Road Entertainment, fizzled into eight place with $3.1 million. The film reportedly cost $15 million to make, and its A-list stars like Jodie Foster and Jeff Goldblum made sacrifices to appear in the film: “We had no money, and no one was getting paid,” director Drew Pearce told The Wrap. Their work was re- warded with negative reviews and low ticket sales.
Two drastically different films did good business over the weekend compared to their expectations. The mammoth “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” opened in 48 international markets, topping all of them for a tidy $151 million over the weekend. Meanwhile, the endearing and resolutely modest “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” a documentary about Mister Rogers, opened to $470,000 in 29 theatres, with an expansion coming next week.